I hate to be a whiner but...

First off, this is the 6th version I have bought (CM03/04, FM2005, FM2007, FM2008, FM2010 and now FM2012), I love the new version I think it's terrific. I like the match engine, the way negotiations work I think it's realistic I love THE GAME.

Unfortunately, I really must confess how much I despise this whole "Steam" thing (the last version I bought, FM2010 had no such problem). Firstly, it's a hassle to install. Why is it so unreasonable to expect, after paying $90 for a game, to be able to put the cd in your computer while on holiday (and hence not having internet...) and be able to install and play the game I have just shelled out for. But I can deal with that... I just had to wait till I got back home.

Then comes the fact that you can't even open the game without having steam open. Annoying, but again, I can deal with that...

Then the fact that you have to download the editor seperately... again, after paying $90 I would have though that would be a littleeeeee bit less of a hassle. But... I can deal with that...

Then comes the "automatic updates". Great in theory. Devastating in practice. The editor has now become unuseable, I've followed the instructions in the FAQ, and posted in the bugs forum (my editor now flits between being green with invisible text or claiming that "You can't open the application Editor because it is not supported on this type of Mac") but I'm no closer to getting the editor to work...

Now that's a big problem for me because I love creating new competitions and adding myself and my friends into the game. It's my game (or so I thought) and after paying $90 I should be able to do that.

The next problem arising from the "automatic update" is that my favourite savegame is now virtually unplayable as the game crashes as soon as I click on anyone of around 2/3 of my squad... awesome...

In the past and update would come out and I could wait till I saw the public reaction to the update before deciding whether or not to install it or hold off till the next patch. Now that freedom has been taken from and my favourite save has been ruined.

Frankly I'm pretty unhappy, I've never posted a complaint about any game on a forum before. Ever. I'm normally very willing to simply deal with bugs and errors and accept it as part of the game. But this really, really frustrates me.

In short, love the game, hate all the associated ********, largely connected to Steam. And again to reiterate I've searched for people with the same problem as me, found some posts but no answers. The suggestion is always the same (a moderator points the poster to the FAQ) and after trying the solution suggested I still have the same problem. Frankly I feel shafted and after nearly a decade of being a loyal, and patient, customer I'm not overly impressed.

Sincerely,

Disappointed

How much did u pay?

I agree with the automatic updates. If you open FM while Steam is downloading a patch or fix, you ruin the game and need to work up to several hours to fix it. There should be a confirm option when the update is downloaded before it is installed so that you know that it has been released and downloaded and can avoid a situation where you need to be a computer engineer (or call support) to play the game.

Another option is that Steam greys out FM when it or the platform is not entirely up to date.

"...to put the cd in your computer while on holiday (and hence not having internet...) and be able to install and play the game

This is the one that gets me. I had a train journey the other day and looking forward to some play time. Only for the "cannot play offline error" from Steam to pop-up? What happened to the days of just installing a game to your hard drive and being able to play as and when you want to?

I would like a button that says 'do you want to download/install game update ?' because the do not update my game feature on Steam has not worked for quite some time

It should be fixed now, also if you dont want the game to update just leave Steam in offline mode all the time, you can then choose yourself when to update or not.

I would like a button that says 'do you want to download/install game update ?' because the do not update my game feature on Steam has not worked for quite some time

it works now, according to other posters on this forum.